Local Legends presents

Skipper Frank

Frank Herman was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1917 and began in show business at the age of twelve with a love of performing. In three years he was performing in magic shows and started a tradition of entertaining that would last seven decades.

Frank Herman's professional career started after World War II, when he landed a job at a Canadian radio station in Edmonton,for five years. He eventually became a well-known celebrity for his radio talk show. He also hosted a live remote show that he presided over in his own entertaining fashion. Yet all the while in the back of his mind he was bouncing around the idea of joining a very new medium that was just being born; television.

Frank spent some time getting cozy with the idea. It wasn't easy to leave the stardom he'd already gained in Canada and start over in the U.S. basically an unknown. Television beckoned the young man to try his luck in sunny California where a car salesman in Los Angeles by the name of Don Lee had rigged up an experimental TV station that Frank worked at for a short time during the summer.

Summer was a time when radio programs took a hiatus and all the major stars took their vacations leaving the air abandoned with the exception of reruns. With repeats filling the summer time slots, television had a chance to gain some new viewers bored with their radio programming. Frank went on to LA and Lee's station, where he marveled over the hideous green make-up you had to wear on camera in those early years. (There were only about three sets back then and Frank remembers Rudy Vallee having one of them.)

Frank had a taste of television but still returned to Canadian radio. During the summer hiatus he would do country fairs demonstrating his magic act. Television was starting to break in Los Angeles and Frank decided to go back to LA, telling his wife that "I'll be going from being a star in Canada to a nobody in Los Angeles." Off they went packing their hopes and dreams with them.

During the time that Frank Herman had been away, Los Angeles television had grown from those two or three TV sets to two thousand TV sets, due impart to Mr. Muntz aka. "Mad Man Muntz" selling his great big sets at a very low price. Los Angeles now boasted three or four stations as well.

Frank had a couple of fumbling starts like his "Magic Party" show. He did late night auto sales commercials (always with magic) and the very first eye contact lens commercial in LA.

He took to performing in the (26 year running!) P.T. Barnum play about the ghastly consequences of drinking called "The Drunkard" over on Vermont Ave. Sometimes he would play the lead, other times he would do his magic act as a segment after the play.

It was here that the KTLA show "City at Night" would come and show off Frank's skill as an entertainer. City at Night would showcase a nightspot in Los Angeles but you never knew where it was going to show up next. It could even be at "The Drunkard".

From the "City at Night" show, Spade Cooley saw an act that he would use from time to time in Frank Herman. Spade Cooley's show could always use talent to fill in. Even though it was a western music show, it still used a vaudeville format.

At home with his boys.

Soon auditions were being held at KTLA for a new children's show host. Frank decided to give it a go, but didn't know that famous voice actor Mel Blanc (of Warner Brothers/Jack Benny fame) was originally cast in the part. Apparently, he was asking too much money and KTLA decided to find someone else to fill his spot for a couple of weeks thinking Blanc would eventually come around.

The Fun Island set was ready to go when Frank Herman landed the part that had been waiting for Blanc. Frank had only a few hours to prepare before the first show.

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In 1997 Frank spoke to an audience of his baby boomer fans at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills. "What we did was mostly ad-lib. We all wrote our own shows"

After three days on the show, Skipper Frank was given a seven year contract.

Skipper Frank went on the airwaves live in 1956, his top-ranked program soared alongside those of other local children's favorites such as "Engineer Bill" Stulla, Tom Hatten, who hosted "Popeye," and Jimmy Weldon and his puppet pal, Webster Webfoot.

He also had a Channel 5 program called "For Kids Only," according to his longtime friend and fellow magician David Alexander.

Skipper Frank was on the air for nine years. One of the reasons that his show could stay on the air two years after his contract ended was the popularity of his personal appearances. A sales manager from Kellogg's cornflakes seeing two thousand people standing in the rain at a supermarket waiting for Skipper Frank to do his magic act makes an impression.

Skipper Frank and his wooden sidekick, Julius, urged kids to eat Kellogg's cornflakes when he appeared under the "Cartoon Carousel" banner.

Alexander was qouted as saying that the popular Herman could have had a national career, but chose to remain in Southern California for the sake of his family. "Frank was absolutely first-class in his work, a wonderful entertainer who always delivered, every appearance was a lesson in quality entertainment."

Clowning around at the Sportsman show.

At work and play.

Two of Skipper Frank and Julius.

This shot was taken when Nixon was the Grand Marshall for the Rose Parade. Frank didn't know the picture had been taken. That is until he worked the Pomona fair with his magic act. He decided to stroll through the art gallery and what picture did he see with a first prize ribbon on it? Yep, this one. He tracked down the photographer and got a print.

From his interview in the 1980’s on KTLA.

In 1963, Frank Herman left kiddie shows to host a nighttime talk show in San Diego. He spent the remainder of his career working in cable television for TelePrompter and the New York advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding. Throughout his life, Herman continued to perform magic shows for children at schools and elsewhere, although a bout with cancer in the 1970s left him almost totally deaf. Skipper Frank Herman, died on January 4, 2000 in La Jolla, California at the age of 83. He is survived by his wife, Gloria, four sons and seven grandchildren. He lived in Carlsbad, Calif., during his retirement years.

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